Since 2003 the German Public Employment Service (PES) has been experimenting with the contracting out of various services. One of the new labour market programmes is the Personnel Service Agencies, which provide client firms with jobseekers on a temporary assignment basis and are responsible for...

We study immigrants in temporary employment agencies in Sweden using a unique data set that covers all aged 16-64 who were employed by temporary employment agencies (TEAs) in Sweden in November 1999, with information on their employment status in 1998 and 2000. We find that young people, women,...

The study examines, what forms and instruments firms use to react flexibly to demand-induced output fluctuations, and, if they are used in a complementary or substitutable way. Empirical evidence shows a rather complementary relationship. Moreover, the determinants of temporary employment...

The increasing use of temporary agency work in Germany has implications for the nature of the employment relationship. The notion of a clearly defined employeremployee relationship becomes difficult to uphold in triangular relationships like in the case of temporary agency work where the...

In most industrialized countries the majority of employed people are full-time employees with a non-temporary job and work at a workplace of the company in which they are employed. They are making careers at the employer they are employed by and most work-place changes are to other jobs of the...

Growing diffusion of temporary agency work, in conjunction with the growing importance of human capital management, leads to the question who invests in the human capital of temporary agency workers. Therefore, we investigate the parties' incentives to invest and review the small number of...

Sector-specific surcharge collective labor agreements between the bargaining partners in the staffing industry allow for a reduction of wage gaps between agency workers and permanent staff in case of long-term job assignments to user companies. Surcharges up to 50% after a surcharge-free period...

Demographic change is perceived as a threat for wealth rather than a challenge in Germany. The debate on skilled labor shortage is a proof for this view. The paper surveys the most important German studies on skilled labor shortage. Meanwhile, a consensus on solutions has emerged in academia....

This paper empirically examines the impact of temporary agency work on firm performance using panel data from German establishments. Thereby, special attention is devoted to the question, whether there are performance differences between firms using temporary agency workers (TAWs) as a buffer...